


of friends and more than friends

by alcego (orphan_account)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Humor, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance is the ultimate wingman, One-Sided Attraction, Pre-Lion Switch, platonic klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 08:39:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13807566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/alcego
Summary: Keith was, without a doubt, a go get 'em kinda guy. So maybe you can understand Lance's pain when Keith decides to draw the line at flirting with the guy he maybe-kinda likes. This castle's gone apples and bananas, and Lance is ready to take things into his own hands. Too bad Operation Wingman was grounded before it even started.a fic for@crsinclair





	of friends and more than friends

**Author's Note:**

> based off of [this post](http://crsinclair.tumblr.com/post/164485899282/okay-but-listen-an-au-where-lance-and-keith)

Listen, Lance knows romance when he sees it. He’s seen countless rom-coms and read enough dating advice to last him a lifetime. He’d _know_ if he was dating someone. But he can kinda see why people think he’s dating Keith.

It’s the jokes. Lance was sure of it. That and all the touching... although, in Lance’s defense, that started after Keith made a fool of himself drinking too much nunvil; Keith could be very clingy when he wanted to be.

But that was beside the point. Look, Lance has put up with a lot of stuff up here in space. He’s gone through everything from haunted castles to shedding planets, but he may have met his match here, in this agonized Keith sprawled face-down over the edge of his bed.

It’s not as if he hasn’t dealt with Keith’s emotions before. There’s, what? Seven of them in the castle on a good day? The numbers didn’t exactly leave a whole lot of room for avoiding Feelings, and as the weeks had turned into months, and those into years, Lance had gotten pretty familiar with his friends.

But there’s this thing about Keith: he’s basically the poster child for emotional constipation. He felt an emotion he didn’t like and shoved it down deep, and usually, that was fine; Lance could handle that. Right now, though, Lance was gonna bust a nut, and it wasn’t gonna be a happy nut either. Why? Well, when it came to romance, Keith was completely and utterly hopeless.

“I swear, Keith,” Lance said, “if you won’t even flirt with the guy, there’s no way you’re gonna get a date with him.” He dragged his hands down his face and scowled. Keith was a go get ‘em kinda guy who didn’t even hesitate when it came to charging into heavy fire without backup, yet he drew the line at flirting with a guy he maybe-kinda liked?

“It’s not that simple,” Keith snapped. “We’re forming Voltron; I can’t risk the lives of the entire universe for some stupid crush!”

Groaning, Lance slithered off of his bed and onto the floor by Keith’s dangling feet. It had taken hours of poking and prodding to get Keith to even _say_ he liked Hunk, and Lance was _over it._ But, before Lance could give Keith the good what for he had coming, the door opened with a _whoosh!_

Blinking owlishly, Pidge cocked her head to the side. Lance stared blankly back at her. “Sorry,” she said unapologetically, “am I interrupting something?”

“No,” Keith said, sitting up and draping a fuzzy calf over Lance’s shoulder. Huh. Lance hadn’t noticed how soft Keith’s leg hair was until now… and that one hundred percent didn’t matter, because Pidge _was_ missing something: Keith’s complete and utter uselessness when it came to flirting with Hunk, who — in Lance’s wholly educated and informed opinion — was one of the easiest people to flirt with in the entire universe. But Lance couldn’t just _say_ that without completely violating the bro code.

Instead, he poked Keith’s calf, which was right next to his head and a prime target for poking. Really, he didn’t deserve the glare Keith was sending his way. The toe jabbed into his side? Maybe, but he would never admit it.

Skeptical, Pidge lifted an eyebrow. “Right. Well, Allura wanted me to remind you that if you’re late to dinner today, she’s gonna have us doing extra training.” She paused to let that sink in. “So don’t be late.”

“It’s like you don’t know me at all!” Lance laughed. “I’d never dream of being late to dinner.”

“You said that last week—” Pidge jabbed a bony finger his way “—and you were still late! Keith, make sure your boyfriend’s on time,” she snapped, eyes flaring.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Keith spluttered, but it was too late. With another _whoosh!_ the door closed, and Pidge was gone.

What the heck? Last time Lance had checked he’d been painfully single — and Pidge thought he was dating _Keith_? Feeling petulant, Lance poked Keith’s calf again. “What’s so bad about dating me, huh?”

Keith shot him a dry look. “Your inflated ego, for one thing.”

“Excuse me!” Lance said, grabbing Keith’s knee and glaring daggers at him. “My ego is just the right size.”

“For a giant, maybe,” Keith said, nudging Lance’s shoulder with his knee.

Lance didn’t have a good retort for that, so he settled for blowing an angry raspberry in Keith’s direction instead. His mama had raised him to know when he couldn’t win a fight, and he was gonna do right by her if he had anything to say about it. And, well, his mama had taught him a few other things as well. Like the importance of communication.

Knocking his head against Keith’s knee, Lance asked, “Just so that we’re all on the same page, you don’t think we’re dating, do you?”

“What? No!” Keith said immediately. Which, same, but he didn’t have to sound so horrified by the idea. If Lance were having this conversation with Hunk, the thought of dating Lance wouldn’t have been met with such open incredulity. Seriously, he’d practically had this same talk with the big guy last week, and it had been one heck of a lot less hostile then!

Speaking of Hunk… squirming around, Lance looked Keith in the eye. “You’ve gotta talk to him—” he stopped, spotting a protest on Keith’s lips, and scrambled gracelessly onto his knees and thrust his finger towards Keith’s chest menacingly. “You gotta!”

“I don’t have to tell him anything,” Keith said, arguing even though Lance had just _specifically told him not to._

Fuming, Lance leaned back on his heels. Keith was gonna be an obstinate turd, wasn’t he? Well, two could play at that game, and Lance, the youngest child of the Vuentes family, was the reigning world champion.

So Lance said, “If you won’t flirt with him, I’ll do it for you,” and grinned impishly when Keith tried to figure out what he’d meant. The game was on.

———

Dinner at the Castle of Lions was less of an affair befitting royalty than a casual meeting between friends. And that was just fine with Lance because there were only so many hours in the day that he could be professional. Really, they were pushing his limits as it was already.

Tonight, however, dinner was different. It carried an air of sophistication and good taste, because Coran had invited a small delegation from Aladril to dine with them. Allura had warned them to be on their best behavior.

“This is not one of our usual diplomatic meetings,” Allura had explained, “but a gesture of goodwill towards our allies. We are receiving them at a halfway point on their return from a trading expedition. They will eat with us, and they will stay the night before continuing on their way.”

From what Lance had understood they were supposed to act casual, minus the friendly bickering that generally came with dinner. And that was fine; Lance could do that. Besides, Lance had a sacred mission to attend to tonight. He didn’t have time for friendly squabbles. No, tonight he took the torch that was passed from bro to bro with celebrated cheers and hearty pats on the back. Tonight, Operation Wingman was a go.

Lance leaned into Hunk’s space and ignored Keith knocking his foot into Lance’s ankle. This was the most challenging aspect to the sacred art of wingmanning: Lance needed to appear natural as he fed Hunk a steady stream of Good Things about Keith, and make everything into an obvious extension of their conversation.

So Lance did what he did best when Keith was involved and smothered each Good Thing in hilarious (and moderately embarrassing) stories. Really, he wasn’t saying anything _that_ mortifying, so the death glare Keith was sending him was entirely unfounded.

Well into dinner, Lance finally had Hunk adequately buttered up. Balancing his chair on its back legs (and ignoring Allura’s angry hiss), Lance said, casual as casual could be, “Keith’s pretty cool, huh?”

Hardly recovered from the last laughing fit Lance had sent him into, Hunk wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. Biting back another fit of giggles, he said, “Yeah. He really is.”

Lance fought back a grin. Did his eyes deceive him, or did Hunk seem _fond_ as he said that? Lance wrapped his ankles around the legs of his chair. “And he’s smart, and all that good junk people like…” he trailed off, letting the thought hang idly in the air.

Hunk gave Lance a look that said, _You really like this guy, don’t you?_ It was in the eyebrows mostly, but there was a mischievous curl to Hunk’s lip that Lance knew far too well.

Biting back a scowl, Lance reached over and tugged on the ends of Hunk’s headband. “That’s not what I meant. Don’t you… like, I dunno… like him?” He peered into Hunk’s expression, determined to glean whatever information he could from even the smallest twitch of an eyebrow or the flutter of an eyelash.

“Sure,” Hunk said carefully, slowly, squinting at Lance suspiciously. “I mean, he’s a good guy. And he could make somebody really happy.” _Especially if that somebody were you,_ that face said, and Lance scowled openly this time.

“Yeah, but—” Lance huffed, irritated “—does he make _you_ happy?”

And then Hunk was laughing as if Lance had made a joke, and he slapped Lance on the back, sending the front legs of Lance’s chair _slamming_ to the floor. “I see where you’re going with this,” Hunk said, and then he didn’t stop and — “You really like Keith. We all see that, Lance. And I get it, I really do. None of us are gonna, I dunno, treat you differently if you two finally decide to tell us about- well.” Hunk let the aborted sentence hang over them and glanced meaningfully at the Aladrians, who had been drawn into a rather vigorous discussion by Pidge and Coran about how technology had advanced over the past ten thousand years.

Reconsidering his stance on being shot out of rogue airlocks, Lance looked desperately to Keith for backup, but Pidge had pulled Keith into what was quickly becoming a heated debate on the other end of the table. Lance _humphed!_ miserably and jabbed Keith’s thigh. Possibly he deserved the elbow Keith thrust into his side as retaliation.

Luckily, that was enough to remove Keith from the debate. “Think Muscles over there could beat Shiro in an arm wrestling match?” Lance whispered.

Keith glanced at Muscles, who was a stout, fleshy fellow with arms as wide as Lance’s torso. “Not a chance,” Keith whispered back.

Lance’s eyes slid to Shiro, enjoying the excuse to ogle his muscles, and was rather inclined to agree. Whatever exercise program Shiro had been following since coming to the castle was working wonders. Forearms like those should’ve been illegal.

Leaning in close enough to press his arm against Lance’s shoulder, Keith conceded, “Could probably bench press him, though.”

“What about Hunk?” Lance asked glancing down at Keith before sizing Muscles up again.

Muscles, who was looking away from them quickly, flushing as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have or intruded on something private. And Lance knew what that look meant, as he’d seen it time and time again during his movie nights with Hunk.

“No way,” Keith said under his breath, drawing a look from Shiro before he, too, was brought into the debate.

Exaggeratedly miming zipping his lips shut, Lance slumped in his chair and mulled over that look. See, Lance knew romance when he saw it. He’d seen enough rom-coms and read enough dating advice to last him a lifetime. Lance _knows_ how people look at the couple, recognizes the way smiling eyes linger on the friends who’ve barely even put the pieces together. And he can’t quite figure out why an alien he’s never met would think he’s dating Keith.

It’s not the jokes or the touching. There’s nothing they do on the battlefield or during transport detail that translates as _funny_ , let alone affectionate. Once he got in Red, Keith was a wildfire raging across the battlefield, scorching everything in his way, and it was Lance’s job to cover his back, clean up the edges and ensure Keith didn’t get pinned or surrounded.

Maybe that’s it, the fierce way that they protect each other. It made sense, kinda, and Lance could understand that.

Dinner passed in a blur. When everyone had eaten their fill, Allura stood and brought the debate to an end with the effortless grace of a practiced diplomat, suggesting that everyone head to their rooms and get some sleep. Coran gathered the Aladrians into a haphazard group, and slowly, ever so slowly, they began to make their way out of the dining hall.

Halfway out the door, one of the Aladrians stopped abruptly, cried, “Oh! I had almost forgotten,” and turned, singling out Lance and Keith. “On behalf of all of Aladril, please allow me to offer you both the sincerest congratulations on your recent nuptials. You have made the most wonderful battle-pair, and we are all quite relieved to see you coming together in spirit as well as in action.”

Blinking, Lance looked to Keith for clarification, but Keith shrugged, equally confused by the sudden declaration. Behind them, Allura coughed.

“I think you must be mistaken,” she said, sounding distinctly uncomfortable.

“Ah,” the Aladrian woman said softly. “In which case, I offer my apologies for such a personal assumption.” She bowed her head gracefully and followed her peers into the hallway.

“What was that all about?” Lance asked. “Nubitals?”

“ _Nuptials,_ ” Allura corrected. “A word for marriage.”

“What?” Keith squawked, folding his arms across his chest. “We’re not married.”

“Aw, c’mon Keith! We’d make a great married couple!”

“You certainly bicker like one,” Shiro agreed, but he was smiling at Keith. Whatever history they shared, it was clear from Shiro’s fond look that he was happy for Keith whether or not he was dating Lance. Shiro was kind like that; he just wanted to see people happy.

“See,” Lance said, slinging his arm around Keith’s shoulders. “We’re halfway there already! Admit it, you wouldn’t last a day without the amazing Lance Vuentes hanging around!”

Keith grunted. “My hearing would.”

“Hey! Rude.”

“Only ‘cause it’s true.”

Shiro shoved them lightly from behind. “Behave, you two.”

Lance clutched his chest in faux distress. “I’ve never once misbehaved in my whole life!”

Pidge snorted. Affronted, Lance unwound himself from Keith’s shoulders and crossed his arms, saying, “I’m a treasure, and you all know it.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” Hunk said, and Lance swelled with satisfaction. Good old Hunk. Reliable guy, he was. “But you’ve definitely misbehaved at least three times in your life.”

“That’s being generous,” Pidge muttered.

Lance made a noise that wouldn't have been out of place in Jurassic Park and said, “Sneaking out of the Garrison a few times doesn’t count as misbehaving! That’s just seizing the opportunities life throws my way.”

“I think we have two very different ideas about what constitutes an opportunity, Lance,” Pidge huffed. “Last time I checked, sneaking out on a school night to flirt with girls isn’t exactly a life-altering experience.”

“It could be,” Lance said.

“And that’s really not important right now,” Shiro said firmly. “C’mon everybody, we should get some shut-eye. We’re gonna be up early tomorrow for some training.”

———

Just in case you haven’t figured it out just yet, Lance knows romance when he sees it. He’s seen far too many rom-coms and read more dating advice than he could ever use in three lifetimes. Lying on the floor of Keith’s room, hours after dinner had passed, Lance should have known exactly what to do about some silly crush. So why the heck does the thought of dating Shiro make him feel lost at sea?

Except that Lance had done the whole _lost at sea_ thing, and that was a lot less intimidating than the thought of dating Shiro, and Lance didn’t think it was just because of the mermaids. Really, considering everything they’ve gone through, dating Shiro shouldn’t have been such a wild idea. But Lance couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around it.

Back at the Garrison, when Shiro was only a few classes ahead of him, Lance had been drawn to him. Then it had been simple: Shiro was the Garrison’s boy wonder, clawing his way to the record books time and time again. Then he came out as bi and met the cruel scrutiny head-on, and pulled himself higher. No one could touch him, and he was Lance’s hero.

But heroes were meant to be idolized and loved from afar. At first, Lance had been all right with that… and then Keith entered the picture, and everything changed.

“Keith?” Lance whispered into the dark. “You awake?”

Blankets rustled mutely on Keith’s bed before all was quiet again. Dang. Lance had been sure Keith would be awake… As if hearing his thoughts, Keith grumbled a bleary, “No.”

Dude could be a turd sometimes. “Remember when we first met?”

Keith grunted, and the blankets rustled some more. In the darkness, Lance could almost make out Keith’s faded outline as he propped himself up on his elbows. “You mean when you barged in on my grabbing Shiro?”

“No.” Lance scowled. “We met before that. At the Garrison.”

Humming, Keith thought about it, and Lance folded his hands on his stomach, content to wait. Draped in a light sheet he’d snagged from a linen closet, Lance was warm. The castle’s temperature was carefully moderated by an AI (which had absolutely thrilled Pidge when she first heard about it) and adjusted itself to best suit its occupant's needs. Right now, the castle wanted him to sleep. And he should…

Keith shot upright. “You piece of—”

“Ey, language!” Lance snapped. And then he smiled sheepishly. "You remember, huh?”

“How could I forget,” Keith muttered. “You were a grade a jerk.”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed because he had been. He’d been a lot of things then that he wasn’t now. “I was jealous of you, you know.”

“What? _Why?_ ” Keith asked, and the jerk was genuinely surprised.

Maybe Keith was right to be surprised. Looking back, they hadn’t been all that different — except in the ways that mattered. Back then, when the thought of losing his family had never crossed his mind, Lance had been jealous of Keith’s closeness with Shiro.

But he didn’t say that. Instead, Lance said, “Stupid reasons, mostly.”

Keith snorted and rubbed his face. “That’s the only kind of reason to have been jealous of me back then.”

“Yeah,” Lance said. “But, looking back, I think those were all excuses.”

“Huh?”

Biting his lip, Lance chose his next words carefully. “I think, back then, I thought that I was just jealous because you were an awesome pilot who never noticed me. Now, though… I don’t think I really understood it until recently. But, Keith?”

“Still listening,” Keith said, and Lance could hear the cautious smirk in his words.

 _Just say it._ “I think it’s because I feel the same way about Shiro that you feel about Hunk.”

Silence. And then: “Um. Congratulations?”

“It’s nothing,” Lance said quickly, “but, like, I’ve been thinking, and it makes sense? And I didn’t realize it back then, but now, out here, there’s no real way of hiding from that kinda thing, you know? And it’s weird talking about this because yeah, _yeah_ I guess I always kinda liked guys the same way I liked girls but I never really realized it because you don’t really see a lot of that but I’ve had a lot of time out here to think about it and—”

“Lance,” Keith said, sitting fully upright now. “Just breathe.”

“You don’t care?”

Making a sound that was somehow a grunt and an exasperated sigh at the same time, Keith flopped down onto his back and pulled his pillow over his face. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “It’s weird. Thinking about someone feeling that way about Shiro. Someone I know.”

All the anxiety leaked out of him at once in an awkward, wheezing laugh, and Lance knew he sounded kinda like a balloon whose air was being slowly let out, but he didn’t care, _because Keith didn’t care._

Breathless, he managed to say, “Thanks,” and Keith snorted.

“Don’t thank me,” he said, pulling his blankets over his neck. And then: “Shiro’s sort of a dork, actually, when he’s not stressed. You kind of, uh, remind me of him, sometimes.”

Lance perked up. “Really?”

Keith grunted. “Don’t get any ideas,” he said, words slurring as he fell back asleep.

Grinning, Lance cradled the back of his head in his hands. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

———

“Keith?”

“What, Lance?”

“We’re never gonna be able to get a date if everyone thinks _we’re_ dating _each other._ ”

“Lance?”

“Yeah?”

“Go to sleep.”

———

“At least they’ll think we’re dating.”

“ _Shut up,_ Lance.”

**Author's Note:**

> eyy my guys i'm about ready to curl up and sleep for ten hours so lemme just say i'm freaking thrilled that you made it all the way to the end of this fic, i super hope you enjoyed it! feel free to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment here or yelling at me on [tumblr](https://alcego.tumblr.com)


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